‘Ping Pong’!
The Employment Rights Bill (‘ERB’) is in its final stages, going through what is known as Parliamentary ‘ping pong’ where a bill bounces back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords until the final wording is agreed.
On Tuesday 28 October 2025, the Government suffered several defeats as the House of Lords voted again to include opposition amendments to key reforms in the ERB. As a result, the ERB must now ‘ping pong’ back to the House of Commons to consider these amendments (it can choose to reject, accept or put forward alternatives) before it can be finalised. The ERB will only go on to receive ‘Royal Assent’, the formal stage by which a bill becomes law, once it has completed these final stages in Parliament. ‘Royal Assent’ is still currently anticipated in the coming weeks but we will be keeping a watchful eye on developments!
The opposition amendments which won support in the House of Lords relate to some of the ERB’s key reforms and, in brief, include:
- Continuing to oppose a ‘day one’ right to unfair dismissal, instead again pushing to reduce the current two-year qualifying period down to six months.
- Changes to the Government’s reforms to zero hour contracts which would give qualifying zero or low hours workers the opportunity to opt out of receiving a guaranteed hours offer (‘GHO’) at the end of the applicable reference period or to opt out entirely, so the employer does not need to make GHOs at all (unless the employee opts back in).
- An amendment requiring the Government to have regard to seasonal work when making regulations to add detail to some of the ERBs reforms, including in relation to zero hours contracts and unfair dismissal.
- Amendments to the Government’s reforms of trade union laws, including an attempt to retain the 50% turnout threshold required in a ballot for industrial action.
Four New Consultations Launched
Separately, on 23 October 2025, in the first wave of consultations promised in the Government’s roadmap to implementation (which we wrote about here), the Government has launched four consultations. The consultations include:
- In respect of trade unions (which both close on 18 December 2025):
- Make Work Pay: enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers (which closes on 15 January 2025)
- Make Work Pay: leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss (which closes on 15 January 2025)
We will be writing about each of these in more detail soon.
Keep up to date on the developments in the ERB via our Reform Hub. If you wish to understand the impact any of the changes may have on your business, please reach out to your usual Littler United Kingdom contact.
